| GSPH 학술 | 'mHealth의 이해' 특별 강연

'The experience of KOICA Project in Rwanda'

According to the international telecommunication corporation in 2011, there were an estimated 6 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, equivalent to about 86 percent of the world population iii. In this data, around 80% of new mobile subscriptions were from developing nations, an unprecedented growth. This was hailed to be a potential for the globe to use this technology in numerous development projects, including health programs. According to the GSMA mHealth tracker, there are now more than 1,000 mHealth products and services around the world, most in least developed countries. As a result mHealth is seen as an exciting opportunities for increasing access to health care for underserved populations.

To address the growing needs of the academic community and contribute to an evidence based and appropriate technology in the disease prevention and health promotion field in public health, a mobile health class has been started in the year 2014, spring semester.<br>On April 28, 2014, a special lecture was held in the School of Public Health, on the experience of KOICA’s project in Africa and its mHealth application by Dr. Lee Hoon Sang, KOICA Health Specialist.<br>It is well known that this field is a growing focus of interest in the past few years but is not well developed which needs further development and research work, said professor Cho Young Tae while introducing the special lecture to the participants.

Currently KOICA runs various projects in Africa among which the maternal and child health project which is implemented in collaboration with UNICEF in Rwanda is one of them. This project uses mobile health technology to reach mothers through community health workers. The major areas of the mHealth application in the project focuses on creating a link between the health facilities and communities to increase access in health service utilization, which is a major challenge in underdeveloped nations especially sub-Saharan Africa. The current progress and achievements are motivating mentioning the strongest linkages already created and the improved feedbacks in the project contribution towards the reduction of maternal and child morbidity and mortality through improved skilled delivery attendance. Dr Lee has also stressed the importance of further developments and involvement of various sectors to come up with an application that can be scaled up at a national level and benefit the larger community taking into consideration the current practical challenges and opportunities in place, especially the growing areas of mHealth applications.